Match A Lost Undecided Major High Schooler With Decent Stats [CA resident, 4.0 GPA, 1530 SAT, <$40k, science major, possibly pre-med]

Chance Me / Match Me
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I’m currently lost as to what schools might be right for me, cause there’s just so much to consider. So I need some help getting some ideas :folded_hands: :folded_hands:

DEMOGRAPHICS:

Location: suburban Bay Area, CA

HS: Decent-sized public high school

Legacy: Dad went to UPenn

Gender: Female

INTENDED MAJOR:

Still not really sure. I do enjoy my science classes (physio, chem and bio. I also liked psych), so I’m thinking something in that realm, I just don’t know what. (maybe Chemistry? I really like physiology though, I don’t know what majors related to that subject would be good? If you guys have idea for me that’d be great, too.) For context, I have thought about doing pre-med… other than that I don’t really have a good idea of what I want to do. I know after college and thinking about things I would want in a career: I would like to travel or at least do something new every once in a while, get to interact with people (and not just with my coworkers but with like “clients”/random normal people). (So I was thinking, with a pre med track the end goal would be something like Doctors Without Borders.) If I want to do pre-med, I also need a plan B and like plan C though in case things don’t work out with getting into med school and all that, but i don’t know what backup majors/careers I’d like.

STATS:

  • UW GPA: 4.0
  • School weighted GPA: 4.69 (not sure what the calculating system is)
  • UC Weighted: 4.57
  • Rank: school doesn’t tell us
  • AP scores:
    • 5 - AP World History, AP Psychology
    • Waiting on scores from AP Chemistry (4 or 5) and AP Precalculus (def 5) and AP Literature (probably a 5?)
  • PSAT and SAT: 1410 (700 reading, 710 math) and 1530 (750 reading 780 math)

COURSEWORK (school’s AP limit is 8– it was originally 6 but 2 were added in the middle of my hs career and I am planning on taking 7 in total)

  • 9th grade: Biology, PE, Intro to 2D Animation, Spanish I, English I, Algebra I (Geometry, Mandarin Chinese I Dual Enrollment over the summer)
  • 10th grade: AP World History, Dance II, Honors Chemistry, Algebra II/Trig, AP Psychology, English II (Mandarin Chinese II Dual Enrollment)
  • 11th grade: U.S. History, Physiology Honors, Beginning Guitar, AP English Literature, AP Chemistry, AP Precalculus
  • 12th grade: Government/Economics, English IV, AP Calculus BC, AP Biology, Honors Physics

EXTRACURRICULARS:

  • Varsity Wrestling- 3 years and this coming senior year (~24/+ hrs/week practice/competition in-season, ~3 hrs of training during off-season but could be more if there’s a competition)

    • Captain as a junior and this coming year
    • Started as a freshman, went to sectionals as a 1st year and placed 8th. This year made top 16 in the state of California, 1st in my section and 1st in my league

  • Varsity Flag Football- 1 yr + this coming year (7-11 hrs/week in season)

  • Track and Field- Varsity junior yr, JV sophomore year 9 (7-11 hrs/week in season)

  • JV Water Polo (1 yr), JV lacrosse (1 yr) (10-12 hrs/week)

  • Model UN Club member - 2 years (attended two conferences a year)

  • Link Crew Leader

  • Private Swim Tutor (1-5 hrs/wk)

    • Teaching kids ages 5-13 of varying swimming capabilities

  • Summer Swim Team - Swimmer and Coaching Staff

    • 6 years as a swimmer, 4 years as a coach

  • Private Tutor

    • Math HW/english essay help

  • NSLI-Y Summer 2025 Study-Abroad (National Security Language Initiative for Youth)

AWARDS:

  • Model UN: Outstanding Delegate Award at BearMUN, Outstanding Delegate Award and Research Award at BMUN, part of group that won best small delegate award (BearMUN and BMUN both conferences held at UC Berkeley, BMUN is more prestigious)
  • Recognized as “Link Leader of the Month” in May 2025 (out of all the link leaders in the school, a couple are recognized each month)
  • Sports Awards:
    • JV Water Polo Most Improved 2022
    • Girls Wrestling Most Promising Freshman Award 2023
    • Wrestling Team Scholar Award 2024 & 2025 (teammate embodying the student-athlete)
    • Wrestling accolades:
      • 8th at NCS (sectionals) 2023
      • 2nd in my League 2023
      • 1st in League 2025 (i was injured in 2024 for league)
      • 1st in NCS 2025, Top 16 in CA 2025
      • 2nd team Varsity wrestling 2023, 1st team Varsity wrestling 2025
  • Swim Team: Alan Smith Award 2024 (this award honors a dad on the team from the 80s who always showed up even while battling bone cancer. The award recognizes positivity, service to the community, being an inspirational and dedicated mentor to teammates)

COST CONSTRAINTS/BUDGET:

  • Ideally looking for merit aid, especially if it’s a safety
  • Less than 40k a year all in

SCHOOLS: (this is all like according to collegevine, I kinda just used the filter and picked some)
Safety - University of Alabama Tuscaloosa 98%chance, Miami University 98%, University of Georgia 82%
Target - University of Pittsburgh 79%, Boston University 43%, Case Western Reserve 62%, UCLA 41%
Reach - Columbia University 26%, Yale 25%

OTHER/SCHOOL PREFERENCES:

  • Size: I don’t really have a preference, I just want there to be enough people that I don’t run into the same ones a lot.

  • Location: Also unsure (i havent lived far from home or my family for longer than a week before, but after these 6 weeks abroad with the nsli-y thing we’ll see how I like it)

  • Campus life and extracurriculars:

  • I know I don’t want to go to a commuter school. I want people to be there at the school and I want there to be a decent on-campus social environment.

  • Clubs like wrestling or rugby or maybe I’ll try jiu-jitsu or archery, I don’t know. Although I’m not sure if I want to wrestle in college, I think I’d definitely want to continue wrestling/something active or pick up a new sport in a recreational manner.

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So the good news is many colleges are on what is called an exploratory model where you just start taking classes and don’t actually declare a major until after a year or two. Where they have major subdivisions, you’d probably want to start in something they might call Arts and Sciences or similar, which is where most of the popular majors for premeds would be, and also a variety of other options that would seem potentially suitable for you.

It looks to me like your big constraint is cost, as $40K is below the full pay amount for most OOS publics and privates. That’s fine but unless you really have a strong preference for leaving the state, you should probably apply to a good selection of your in-state California options. You have a great system in your state, and many of those colleges would seem to fit your requirements. And even with merit, I am not sure you will get comparable value at many OOS publics.

Miami (Ohio) though is an interesting idea, since they do have merit. You should check if they would get you on budget, but it has a different feel from most publics and could be worth considering. Pitt is also an interesting school with merit, although I am not sure it will get on budget for you. Another I like to mention is Minnesota, and their NPC will actually tell you your cost with merit.

In terms of privates, Case does have merit and seems like a good fit for you. Rochester would be another I would recommend, and they actually have a pretty cool and flexible curriculum structure.

If you want a more likely option, you might check out where the University of Denver would get you with merit.

With colleges without merit like Yale and Columbia, you need to check their NPCs to see if they would be on budget. These are fine for exploration, but I would suggest you see if Columbia’s core curriculum is really to your tastes–it is exploratory in nature but less flexible about exactly what you explore. If you want to explore more freely, you might check out Brown which has an open curriculum.

Another good Reachy college for exploratory kids is WashU, which makes it easy to combine all sorts of different interests. Lots of premeds at WashU too, which is not necessarily a plus per se, but the advising is very good for kids who go that route. Again, though, you need to check the NPC at WashU, as their merit is very rare.

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Looks like an automatic $28k scholarship for your stats there: https://afford.ua.edu/scholarships/out-of-state-freshman/#oosautomatic

Subtracting that from the $59k out-of-state price ( https://afford.ua.edu/cost/ ) gives $31k, which is within your budget.

$15k maximum automatic scholarship: Scholarships | Costs and Financial Aid | Miami University

Cost of attendance (but without books, misc, and travel costs) is $58k ( Tuition and Cost of Attendance | Admission and Aid | Miami University ), so the net after the maximum automatic scholarship is at least $43k, which is a little over your budget (and more over after books, misc, and travel costs).

So Alabama looks like a 100% safety, while Miami looks considerably less than 98% chance of being affordable.

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UCLA and BU are reaches in my opinion.

You don’t have a 25% chance of getting accepted to Columbia or Yale.

These College Vine %ages should be viewed with extreme caution. I don’t think they are accurate, and are often overly optimistic.

But you do have one sure thing on your list (Alabama) so if you are happy with that, apply to the others and see.

As a CA resident, I’m curious why you aren’t applying to any of the other (many) CA public universities.

You can take the required courses for medical school applicants at just about every four year college in this country, arts conservatories excluded.

What makes you think being a doctor is a career you will enjoy? I would suggest you put premed on the back burner for now. Applying to medical school is years away! You need an undergrad school that is affordable, and that you would be happy to attend for four years.

I would suggest you take a look at University of New Mexico.

I would suggest you look at this site for some other health care ideas:

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My daughter just graduated from BU with her doctorate of physical therapy, she wanted to work in healthcare. She’s received 2 job offers already from past clinicals (JFK and NYU). She got her undergrad from UDel, generous merit, knowing she had 3 more years to go.

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I would add the University of Delaware to your list and also do some research on the SUNY schools (assuming the location is ok). In-state schools should also be on the list.

Your list should include schools that will provide enough merit, and schools that are affordable based on the NPC. Alabama is a good one to keep if you like it. I like the Univ of Rochester, but I am not convinced you will receive a very large merit award- doesn’t hurt to try and it’s a good one to keep. Pitt is another one - apply and see if you receive enough merit.

If Columbia is affordable you can leave it, but recognize that it is a big reach and you do not have a 26% chance of acceptance. I feel BU is a reach and not a target.

As far as careers go, you have time and may change your mind several times as you take classes, volunteer, shadow, research different careers etc. There is no rush and I agree about putting premed on the back burner for now.

As far as traveling and meeting different people..you can get that in many careers in health care, should you go that route.

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@aunt_bea can give you some good info about Buffalo (one of the SUNY schools)

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So I think you have no issue other than to find the right kind of school for you. And I think naming names at this point is a bit early - other than to perhaps visit to see how you feel. And you can do that closer to home, without trapsing all over the country.

You say size doesn’t matter other than very tiny. But there’s a difference between - say an Alabama which is easy to get around or a UGA which area wise, is enormous.

A Miami Ohio is much smaller and tighter as a campus but its rural - less happening in the immediate. BU is uber urban - so not a traditional campus like the others.

So you have the stats. There will be many schools to hit the budget. Alabama is the only one on your list that assuredly will - Miami and UGA are possible. Where are your Cal State schools or other UCs or WUEs like Oregon State, Utah, Colorado State, UNR.. That you haven’t been far from home tells me heading to the East coast might be a bit much - that’s up to you of course but you will be gone - and maybe home sick - so something to consider.

So my recommendation is to find schools of varying sizes, urban-levels, etc. and explore. Find the right kind of campus for you -it’s hard to say what that is without truly knowing. You have varied types listed. But you could, if needed, do that out West.

Also, you have a price - $40K all in - but list schools that won’t get you there. Pitt, as an example, isn’t happening. Yale could if you qualified for need aid.

Have you done the net price calcs for every school at your target level and below which aren’t happening budget wise if you don’t get need aid?

I wouldn’t use College Vine - I would say Bama and Miami are assured. Pitt is also likely assured if you apply by end October. UGA less so. Your UCLA and Ivies - not even close.

BU and CWRU are tough gets - demonstrate interest - and ED helps.

But the issue with those two are - unless the net price calculators get you to your cost, you can’t ED.

So you should start with an NPC - to see what it says. Have your folks fill it out.

Once you know if you’ll qualify for aid or not, then you can start picking campuses to visit (whether on your list or close by, just to get a feel)- and you should vary that list in hopes of finding where you’d be comfortable in size (area and population), urbanness, sports, weather, demographic, and more.

You’re not really lost - you’ll have options galore. But you want them to be the right options.

Good luck.

Here’s the BU NPC.

Welcome | Net Price Calculator

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Buffalo is an excellent school for premed and prehealth. It’s very big- keep that in mind. There are many opportunities to volunteer and shadow different career paths in a variety of settings.

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Congratulations on being a competitive applicant. I will only comment on UCLA and as a California resident, you should consider other UC’s and Cal states.

UCLA overall admit rate for a 4.0+ Capped weighted UC GPA was 14% in 2024 and a 9.3% admit for California applicants. Also this link for the UCLA Freshman profile by major (although L&S does not admit by major) can be helpful.

You can use the following link to look up your HS’s specific Capped weighted GPA and admit rate for each UC campus.

Good luck and definitely expand your list.

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Several things come to mind here.

One is that you do not need to decide this right now. The vast majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Some cannot keep up a “medical school worthy” GPA in the tough premed classes. However, a lot of students when they get to university find something else that they want to do instead. One daughter briefly wondered about being premed, but when she got into multiple university lab courses discovered that she loved lab work, is good at it, and would prefer to be on a research track rather than a doctor. She is currently getting a PhD in a biomedical field (and there are a range of different biomedical fields). We have seen a few students on this web site who have been interested in physical therapy. Law school is possible. Medical school is possible. Your very good score on the math part of the SAT plus apparently straight A’s in math (along with everything else) makes me think that the many careers that are math heavy are also possible. It is also very common to get to university and get exposed to a lot of different options. There is no need to decide this quickly.

Another thing that comes to mind is that medical school is a long path that involves 8 years of university followed by residency. This takes a lot of effort over an extended period of time (which is something that could be said for a PhD also). A student needs to be quite determined to take this path. Determination might be just as important as academic excellence. You need to want to do it.

Of course medical school is expensive. A student considering this path should budget for a full 8 years of university, where the last 4 years will be expensive.

Also, quite a few biomedical related careers involve some form of graduate school. For someone interested in this very general area I sort of figure that “graduate school” is reasonably likely, and this might be particularly true for someone who like you has superb high school stats plus superb SAT scores. This is a bit of a contrast versus for example an engineering or CS major, which are fields where graduate programs are generally not needed and less likely.

There are a huge number of universities that are very good for a premed student, and that are also very good for a wide range of other potential majors. You have a lot of them in California, including all of the Universities of California and probably most or maybe all of the CSUs.

We don’t have any human doctors in the immediate family. We do have three people who either have graduate degrees in a biomedical field or who are currently getting a graduate degree in a biomedical field. ALL of them report that the other students in their graduate program come from a huge range of undergraduate schools. Two doctors I know have said the same thing. There are hundreds of universities and colleges where you can get a great undergraduate education.

You are also from a WICHE state, so you might consider the WICHE/WUE schools (WUE is the undergraduate part of WICHE). However, I am not very familiar with WUE. Hopefully others know it better than I do.

I think that you should be looking closely at the Universities of California. They are all very good. You do not need to go to one of the top ranked two – the others are excellent also.

One nit: I do not see much foreign languages on your course list. Make sure that you are taking enough of this to help with both high school graduation and university admissions. Also, being able to speak more than one language can be very helpful to anyone who works in health care in any customer-facing position.

Don’t trust their percentages. They look very off to me.

Very good school. A long way away for you. I would be quite surprised if it would reach your $40k target price. For us it was a near tie with NEU for the most expensive school either daughter got accepted to. I am skeptical whether it is worth the cost.

In terms of “reach versus target”, there are at least two issues: Getting accepted and being able to afford it. I am not sure whether BU is a likely or a reach in terms of acceptance, but I think that it is definitely a reach or high reach in terms of affordability.

Both are high reaches for essentially everyone (assuming that no close relative has a Nobel Prize or is the head of state of a medium sized country). Neither gives merit aid. You might want to get your parents to run the NPC to see if either is going to be even remotely close to being affordable.

You might want to visit a few schools and sit in on a few classes, and see what you think. Smaller schools typically have smaller classes and make it easier to get to know your professors, but also have a smaller range of potential majors.

Most if not all universities have quite good study abroad programs. One option is to take a semester or a year abroad. However, another option is to take a shorter course abroad during the summer. Sometimes some courses come with scholarships to offset the price.

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I think it is a little early to decide on medical school and a plan B or C. Plan Bs can be highly competitive as well and require a well thought out plan. Other plan Bs may not be as competitive. While ALL premeds need a plan B, you have time for this and will have to do your research.

Right now you do not know if you like the job of a physician.

Your job now is to find an affordable school that you would be happy to attend. Once you are there you can take classes, volunteer, shadow…and get a feel for what you like…and what you don’t. Then you can decide on premed, plan Bs etc.

Ohio State has merit for OOS applicants. The University of Nevada looks interesting as well. Take a look and see if they might work.

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I think Doctors Without Borders is a fabulous organization. But you might want to read this to decide if its a “career goal” or not.

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Many, many, many students who think they want to go to medical school decide that they don’t. They may have the grades, but when they start evaluating the work/life balance of different professions, they decide that med school is not for them.

Based on your description, I would discourage you from defining yourself as “premed” but as someone who is possibly pre-health. UC Davis has a good Health Professions Advising website. Poke around on the website and see if anything catches your attention. HPA - Exploring Health Careers

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Absolutely!
Our eldest daughter attended UB. She was pre-med and got into a program at UB, whereby she was guaranteed to get a spot in a med school, in upstate NY if she followed a prescribed set of coursework.

(They no longer have that program because, from what I understand, they were soon afterwards inundated with apps for that program from lots of international, as well as domestic students. Don’t quote me on that.)

We’re in San Diego. She got into her UCs. She got into Hopkins, Yale and had 3 Harvard interviews. We didn’t know a soul in upstate NY. She was given basically a full ride for 4 years (Merit). She chose it because she knew we would be paying out of pocket for med school and for two more younger siblings’ college educations.

One of her requirements was a bioengineering course, which she, basically aced and loved the engineering aspect of it. She took more engineering courses and changed her major to Electrical engineering and added Computer Science as a double major. It took her 5 years but ended up loving what she does!
My husband is an Electrical Engineer and was educated at UCSD and Stanford. He was very impressed by SUNY Buffalo’s engineering coursework and programs. He said that Buffalo is very underrated and would be equivalent to a top UC for engineering.
The upstate NY area has exceptional medical schools.
We always paid ahead ($99)for her direct one-way flights from SD to Buffalo. (Southwest used to be cheap). She received her finals schedule in advance.

I think Buffalo is a great choice because there are various choices in majors and the school has housing and parking! Although, freshmen can’t have car privileges until sophomore year, so you have to plan on that.

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I agree that Buffalo is underrated. I feel that it is a power house of a school, with plenty of pre-health advising and opportunities: premed, OT, PT, speech/audiology, psychology, genetics etc.

If you are ok with the location, size, and weather….it’s a good one to add.

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Congratulations on building a strong profile in high school. I agree with others about thinking of yourself as pre-health rather than pre-med and that it would likely be a good idea to investigate college campuses nearby to get a sense of your preferences.

In order to try and find a starting point, I decided to look at colleges that offer women’s wrestling, whether at a varsity or club level. I started off using College Navigator (fed’s website) but that was only for varisty, so I used some other sources, including this one and this one. My focus is on school’s with more than 2k undergrads, often times (though not exclusively) in areas with good proximity to shadowing/clinical opportunities, and/or WUE schools (where your family would pay 150% of in-state tuition due to your CA residency).

Some schools that you might want to investigate include:

  • Augsburg (MN): About 2400 undergrads in Minneapolis
  • Augustana (IL): About 2400 undergrads in the Quad Cities
  • Carthage (WI): About 2600 undergrads between Milwaukee & Chicago
  • John Carroll (OH): About 2300 undergrads at this Jesuit college in the Cleveland area
  • North Central (IL): About 2400 undergrads in a Chicago suburb
  • Sacred Heart (CT): About 7k undergrads
  • Southern Oregon: About 4400 undergrads at this WUE school
  • SUNY Buffalo State (NY): About 5600 undergrads, not to be confused with U. at Buffalo (with about 20k undergrads)
  • Texas Women’s: About 10k undergrads at this coed school (about 86% female)
  • U. of Iowa: About 22k undergrads

I suspect that all of the above would be likely or extremely likely admits for you, and that merit aid would be forthcoming. Investigating some of these to see what interests you (or doesn’t) can help to hone in on what you value in your college experience.

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Thank you so much for your insight. I’ll definitely look into the schools you mentioned. I’ve been thinking about how I want to pick my colleges and I really like this idea of going to a school that is open to exploring makes it easy to try different classes or switch majors and isn’t too focused/strong in just one specific major.
Thanks again!

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Thanks for the link! I agree with what you said about premed. I think I’ve just seen a lot of my peers and felt this expectation that I’m supposed to have it all planned out and I should have some sort of career in mind. So, seeing all these replies assuring me that things change and all that has definitely helped me feel ok with where I am and figure out what I’ll focus on when picking colleges.

(The schools I put on that little list in my post was not at all reflective of what I want, actually :sweat_smile: This was my first time using college confidential so I just put some schools down, thinking the collegevine numbers would help people get a sense of where I am. But, definitely, I’m not relying no collegevine to tell me what my chances are. And I am planning on applying to more CA schools)

Thanks again!!

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No problem! This was a big thing for my own kid so I helped him identify particularly suitable exploratory colleges, and I am happy to pass along what I learned in that process.

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